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Journal ArticleDOI

An Archaeological Site on the North Coast of Ellesmere Island

01 Jan 1973-Arctic (The Arctic Institute of North America)-Vol. 26, Iss: 3, pp 255-256
TL;DR: The Wood River site of Tanquary Fiord as mentioned in this paper was the first site of the Independence I and II cultures to be found at the mouth of the Wood River in the UK.
Abstract: In July 1965, at the end of a long walk westward from Alert, I marked down an Eskimo site on the south side of the well-developed delta terrace at the mouth of the Wood River, 82°30' N, 63°07' W. In setting and lay-out it resembled sites of the Independence I and II cultures that we found at Tanquary Fiord in 1963 .... It was not until August 1972 that I was able to revisit the delta of the Wood River.... The Eskimo site is 11.5 m above sea level ... and lies 3 m from the edge of the delta terrace and about 60 m from the sea. The level terrace, composed mainly of shingle and gravel with scattered flat rocks and small boulders, ends above the foreshore in a steep bank, the material of which is more or less at angle of rest and lightly vegetated. The distinctive feature of the site is the central hearth, which measures 260 cm in length by 69 cm in breadth. It is oriented at right angles to the shore so that the entrance of the tent ring faces the sea, and it is formed in the usual way of flat slabs (in this case 3 in number) of fissile rock set on edge in the ground. Outside the central hearth only 4 rocks define the tent ring .... About 6 m to the north of this main structure there is a rough circle (1.5 m in diameter) of small boulders, and a similar feature 35 m to the south; the latter comprises 6 boulders with maximum dimensions of 35 cm set on the arc of a rough circle about 2 m in diameter. The site is protected to the south by a cliff in bedrock to a height of about 100 m. In the middle of the central hearth, with minimum disturbance of the floor, we made a small collection of charcoal and charred bones for radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon analysis of the charcoal ... has yielded an age of 1070 ±270 yr BP .... The discovery of the Wood River site raises the question of how many others remain to be discovered on the north coast of Ellesmere Island. Very little is to be seen at the surface, and it is likely that similar sites in the Alert area to the east have escaped notice, although by now they may have been destroyed by the passage of vehicles. On the long coast of northern Ellesmere Island no other archaeological sites have been found but then few people have had the interest and opportunity at the right time of year to look for them. ... Two further comments are offered with diffidence, since I am not an archaeologist. First, the radiocarbon age of the charcoal, if it can be accepted as a maximum age for occupation of the site, belies what appeared to be a distinctive feature of the Independence culture, namely the central hearth. Can it be that this was a feature that persisted to the end of the Dorset period in certain areas? Secondly, on the question of the movement north of these Eskimos, they may all have crossed the plateau southwest of the Grant Ice Cap from the Lake Hazen area and then followed the valley of the Wood River to its mouth, thus by-passing the Robeson Channel coast. From excavations in 1958, Dr. M. S. Maxwell concluded that hunters from the south visited the Lake Hazen area during the period from about A.D. 1000 to 1450. However, sites of both Independence and Thule cultures have since been found at the head of Tanquary Fiord .... Thus, although Maxwell found no evidence that Eskimos had made the passage from Tanquary Fiord to Lake Hazen, it now seems certain that immigration came from that direction at some time, thus completely by-passing the Smith Sound route.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, local postglacial isobases are constructed over northeastern Ellesmere Island and Polaris Promontory, northwestern Greenland for 7500 and 6000 BP, respectively.
Abstract: Local postglacial isobases are constructed over northeastern Ellesmere Island and Polaris Promontory, northwestern Greenland, for 7500 and 6000 BP. Both sets of isobases demonstrate a strong upward...

58 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Direct and indirect measures of growth and energy storage were evaluated as indicators of subchronic 1,1,1-trichloro-2-(o-chlorophenyl)-2-(p- chlorophenyl)ethane (o,p'-DDT) exposure in juvenile sailfin mollies.

30 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: The modern Ellesmere ice shelves constitute the oldest landfast sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere, originally described by late nineteenth century sledging expeditions as mentioned in this paper, and were the most widely cited age (3000 14C yr before present (BP)) was provided by a radiocarbon date on driftwood stranded behind the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf.
Abstract: The modern Ellesmere ice shelves constitute the oldest landfast sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere, originally described by late nineteenth century sledging expeditions At that time, the ‘Ellesmere Ice Shelf’ formed a contiguous, coastal apron that extended hundreds of kilometres in length and covered up to 9000 km2 By the mid-twentieth century the Ellesmere Ice Shelf was reduced to several large remnants and half its original area Early efforts to document the age of ice shelf inception used conventional radiocarbon dating of internal, aeolian layers and marine organisms incorporated by basal accretion, all providing problematic results The most widely cited age (3000 14C yr before present (BP)) was provided by a radiocarbon date on driftwood stranded behind the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf

14 citations

References
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Book
01 Jun 1986
TL;DR: The winner of the Award of Excellence from the American Association of Museums, and a Citation for Excellence in Book Design from the Alcuin Society as mentioned in this paper, was the first author of the book as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Winner of the Award of Excellence from the American Association of Museums, and a Citation for Excellence in Book Design from the Alcuin Society.

346 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Arctic Ground Squirrel (Citellus undulatus) is an important geomorphological agent in the Ruby Range, Yukon Territory, particularly since its distribution and concentration is highly variable as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Arctic Ground Squirrel (Citellus undulatus) is an important geomorphological agent in the Ruby Range, Yukon Territory, particularly since its distribution and concentration is highly variable, ...

51 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Quimby and Hough as mentioned in this paper described the "Aqua-Piano Indians" as a group of people who were early offshoots of the ancient boreal peoples.
Abstract: variant interpretations of western Great Lakes geochronology have been reviewed previously in this journal (reviews by George M. Stanley and George I. Quimby of Jack L. Hough, Geology of the Great Lakes, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 277-9, 1959). Succeeding chapters deal with the distribution of fluted points following the presentation of the author in an earlier article in this journal (Fluted Points and Geochronology of the Lake Michigan Basin, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 247-54, 1958) and then a discussion of the distribution of piano points and their correlation with the extinct lake beaches. Here the author lumps the Browns Valley, Brohm, Sheguiandah, and George Lake sites into a single cultural category. Quimby labels this category the \"Aqua-Piano tradition\" — hopefully with tongue-in-cheek. It is difficult to understand exactly what the author really wishes to designate by this term, for in addition to defining it as a tradition on page 34, we find the term used to describe the \"Aqua-Piano stage\" on page 33, and on page 41 it is used to designate the \"AquaPiano Indians.\" The following chapters on prehistory treat the Boreal Archaic, Old Copper, Early Woodland, Middle Woodland-Hopewell, and Late Woodland manifestations. Quimby views Boreal Archaic and Old Copper as distinct cultural entities though stating that, \"It is entirely possible that the Old Copper Indians were early offshoots of the ancient boreal peoples\" (p. 50). The archaeological-geological content of the book occupies the first 107 pages of text and is followed by a brief sketch of early historic fur trade and its cultural effects, brief cultural summaries of the Huron, Chippewa, Ottowa, Potowatomi, Sauk, Fox, Miami, Winnebago, and Menominee. The concluding chapter concerns itself with the destruction of aboriginal cultures. The book summarizes an immense period of time in concise fashion. There are some errors of fact, such as the characterization of the first forest cover as spruce-fir, which was actually spruce (see S. T. Anderson, \"A lateglacial pollen diagram from Southern Michigan, U.S.A.\" Danmarks Geologiske Undersagelse. II. Roekke. Nr. 80. Copenhagen, 1954), a significant error in that spruce-fir connotes a warmer climate than spruce alone. In addition, the patrilineal Winnebago are described as having a social organization which \"stressed lineage in unilateral descent in the male line through one's mother's brother\" (p. 136). Despite these errors, Quimby has succeeded in achieving his goal of producing a useful book for the lay reader. The student and the professional will also use the book for Quimby has a long and intimate knowledge of the whole range of prehistory here. They will use it with less assurance, however. Part of the difficulty for the latter is the fact that the region considered is an arbitrary region and is neither a natural or cultural area, as Quimby indicated previously in his chapter on the same region in Griffin's Archeology of Eastern United States. Another difficulty is in the confusion of terminology, referred to earlier, where tradition, culture, stage, period, and people are used rather indiscriminately. The book will be used and quoted widely, and the ideas and interpretations presented will stimulate discussion and reinterpretation. In this respect, the book achieves a second goal.

4 citations